The Study of Silence
by energy
Summary: a HP/Star Wars crossover. The calm before the storm breaks. a bit of dark history
1. Default Chapter

Short Author's Notes before starting.  
  
This is a Harry Potter/Star Wars crossover. I've been meaning to write it now for a good six months and it's finally got it's claws into me. This story came around for two main reasons. The first is that I love both HP and SW, and I've read a few crossovers here on FF.N and in my blunt opinion, they pretty much stank up the place. I hope that I can do a little better with this one.  
  
The second reason that the concept behind the story came to me in a very vivid dream and I want to get it out for you all to enjoy. I could almost smell the ozone from the lightsabres. Yes, there will be lightsabres in this- it wouldn't be SW-esque without them, now would it????  
  
A little info you might want to know about:  
  
This takes place in Harry's fifth year.  
  
Voldemort is quickly gaining power and support.  
  
Dumbledore fears that the war might be completely lost.  
  
That should do it for now. Go on and check it out.  
  
Oh yeah, and I don't own either of these two things. If I did, I would be one incredibly rich individual. 


	2. The Beginning

"Ah, Professor McGonagall, I presume you had a restful summer break?"  
  
"Not as restful as I would have liked, Albus. Something dark hung just outside my mind all the while."  
  
"As it did with me. Sometimes magic can seem a curse, eh, Minerva?"  
  
"Yes, but I'd never change a thing."  
  
"Me neither, but all the while, I feel something bad will soon fall upon us, horribly bad."  
  
"I feel the same way, Albus, but what should we do?"  
  
"I have summoned an old friend of mine to teach class this term, to instruct our children in another form of magic, the old way."  
  
"The old way? I've not ever heard that referred to in, well, quite a long time."  
  
"I know, Minerva, but it seems to be a logical decision. If things go as I fear they might, it might be the best thing I've done as a Headmaster here."  
  
"Surely that won't happen, Albus-"  
  
"I hope not, but I cannot stand idly by and wait for events to overtake us, you know."  
  
"I agree. Hogwarts is strong, Albus, and the staff inside are most formidable."  
  
"Yes, but Voldemort is strong as well, and growing stronger all the while I fear. We must be prepared."  
  
"Then tell me, Albus, who have you called on to teach the children these ways? An old friend, you said?"  
  
"Yes. Messina Jade, her name is. I've known her since I was a boy here. She was always determined to study the olden ways and has learned much I hear. She sent word earlier today and said she shall arrive in the morning."  
  
"Good. I will be most pleased to meet her. I do still hope that our fears are unfounded, Albus."  
  
"As do I, Minerva. However, I can't shake the feeling that they aren't.  
  
The first day of term finally came around for Harry Potter. He thought he would explode if he had to wait one more day to go back to school. He, Hermione, Ron and Ginny walked up the hallway leading to the Great Hall and were tingling with anticipation.  
  
"Are you ready, Ron? Ginny?" Harry asked his companions. It was obvious that Hermione was so there was no need to even ask her.  
  
"I guess so, Harry," Ron said. "It just feels like we just left this place a few days ago, like someone stole part of my summer."  
  
"Well, Ron, if you'd not have slept through so much of it you likely wouldn't feel that way."  
  
"Hey," Ron answered, "I was up by no later than three on most days. Five on a few."  
  
"Exactly." Hermione sniffed and took her seat at the table.  
  
"Harry, you do you suppose that is to Dumbledore's right?" Ron asked once he got over Hermione's little poke at him.  
  
"I don't know, Ron. I can't even tell if it's a man or a woman, their cowl is pulled down so low."  
  
"Probably another DADA teacher, you think?" Ron asked.  
  
"No, Professor Mooney is back, remember?" Hermione said.  
  
"Obviously I didn't or I wouldn't have asked, would I?" Ron said.  
  
The four of them started talking with the rest of the Gryffindors that they'd not seen since last term- Seamus, Neville, Dean, and so on. A good half hour passed before the first years were led in and the sorting hat did its thing. Once they were all sorted and seated with their new houses, Professor Dumbledore stood as he always did.  
  
"Welcome back students," he said and looked around the room, making eye contact with a large number of students. "I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are now ready to learn more of the fine arts of magic. I'm sure that you are all quite hungry and not in the mood to listen to an old man ramble on forever, so I'll make a few short announcements and then we'll all dig into the feast." More than a few murmurs of assent reached his ears and he smiled.  
  
"First off, for all the new students, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden. To all the returning students, it is still forbidden." Dumbledore smiled when he said that. He had said it for decades now, but still found it a little amusing.  
  
"Second, and this goes for the fourth and fifth year students," he looked at the middle grade sections of each table, especially Gryffindor, "You shall not be taking Potions this term, nor the next." Thunderous applause echoed off the walls from three of the four tables. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor were overjoyed at that. Slytherin was, well, not. Once the noise quieted down, he began speaking again.  
  
"Instead of Potions, you will be learning a different Art, the Art of the Mind." Confused looks were all around the room. "You will be learning about the way magic used to be done, long ago." Murmuring filled the room again, puzzled glances were exchanged freely. "Now, as to who will be teaching this class, may I present an old friend of mine, Messina Jade." Dumbledore motioned to his right to the figure in the light grey robe.  
  
"Ah, now we get to see who the mystery person is," Harry said quietly.  
  
"Yep," Ron replied and they were all silent in anticipation.  
  
The robed figure stood and slowly raised its hands to its cowl and then tossed it back like an afterthought. The front of the robe fell to the sides, revealing a stunningly gorgeous woman with long curly red hair.  
  
"Holy cow!" Ron yelled out and his sentiment was echoed by the majority of the boys in the room.  
  
"She's awesome," Harry said, and almost had to pick his jaw up off the table.  
  
Even Hermione had to agree. "She is stunning."  
  
The figure at the table pushed her hair back out of her eyes and prepared to speak, causing all the boys in the room to fall dead silent. She smiled at this effect and began speaking.  
  
"As your headmaster said, my name is Messina Jade, and I will be instructing some of you in the Arts of the Mind. It won't be easy, but you will find it quite rewarding. I won't say anything more now because I'm sure you want to eat, so I'll just save my lectures for tomorrow." Jade pulled herself back into her chair and Dumbledore stood again.  
  
"Now, let the feast begin."  
  
  
  
The feast went on with many murmurs and whispers and comments about the new instructor. "All I know is that this has to be the best term ever, for two reasons," Ron said between bites of chicken.  
  
Hermione looked at Ron while he was gorging himself. "I bet I can guess what one of those two are, Ron," she said dryly.  
  
"You probably can, Hermione. One, of course is the great looking teacher sitting up at the table. The second is that we don't have to take Potions this year."  
  
"You're right," Seamus says with a mouthful of his own, "it just doesn't get any better than that." Hermione rolled her eyes and chewed properly.  
  
The dinner drew to a close and the students retired to their dorms, rather worn out from the long travel and then the big dinner.  
  
"So Harry, what do you think that she is going to teach us?" Ron asked Harry.  
  
"I honestly have no idea, Ron. Something to do with the mind, I guess." Almost every bit of conversation this evening had revolved around Messina Jade. From the colour of her hair to what Dumbledore meant when he said she was an old friend. How old of a friend? A girlfriend? It was decided that she couldn't have been his girlfriend because she looked way too young, as well as each boy in the conversation wanting to claim her as his own girlfriend. Finally eyes grew extremely heavy and the students began to slowly file into bed.  
  
The next day seemed to go on forever. The class they were all waiting for was at the end of the day, seemingly forever far off. The Gryffindors trudged through their classes and finally the time came around for them to go to Professor Jade's class. Harry and the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors met up with the Slytherins outside the classroom.  
  
"Great. Even though we don't have potions, we still get stuck with them," Ron said, gesturing a thumb at Draco and his little group.  
  
"Still, no Snape to worry about favoring them," Hermione told him. Ron nodded his head in agreement and the conversation turned to other things. They were all starting to grow a little impatient when they heard the sound of footfalls echoing from down the hallway. All heads turned in the direction of the sound and saw their teacher coming their way. Her grey robes billowed around her and her hair hung loose. Silence fell over the whole group as she strode up.  
  
"Ah, my class beat me here. A rather inauspicious way to start off, isn't it?" Messina Jade didn't get a reply, just a few dumb stares. She smiled and opened the door to the classroom.  
  
Inside the room they followed her. The two classes segregated themselves and gave their undivided attention to the lady at the front of the room. She looked over her students for a moment before speaking.  
  
"Welcome students. I hope that this year goes well. For those of you who might have forgotten, I'm Messina Jade, and I'm here to teach you the arts of the mind. These arts go far back into our past, almost to the beginning of time itself." All the eyes in the room were staring at her, hanging on every word.  
  
"I must say that I was a little surprised when I got the owl from the Headmaster earlier this year, asking me to teach this class. What I'm about to begin teaching you used to be taught on a one-to-one basis, but Dumbledore seems to think that it is vital you learn this, so we'll have to be a little creative. Any questions before we start?" The sound of a fly buzzing could easily been heard over the silence. Messina smiled.  
  
"Good. Then let's get started." She got out of her chair and started pacing around the front of her desk. "The way you are learning magic now is quite different from the ways of old." Blank stares rained on her. She continued. "Before, when the power ran thicker in our blood, the wands you have in front of you were completely unnecessary." Hermione gave her an odd look and raised her hand.  
  
"Yes, Ms. Granger, a question?"  
  
"Yes. What power are you talking about? Magic?"  
  
"Sort of. Some people say that long ago dragon's blood ran thick in our lines. I don't prescribe to that theory myself, but I won't go into all that right now. Needless to say, we wizards have something in our lines that I call power for a generic term." Hermione looked placated for the moment and settled back in to listen.  
  
"In old times, the power flowed through us and we were able to channel it with great ease and use it." Quite a few confused looks came her way. "Over time, our bloodlines have thinned out considerably and we, the descendants of the old masters, have to use wands to supplement our power. In olden times the great masters had such great control of their power that they could use it and will something to happen."  
  
"Anything?" Seamus said, a little excited.  
  
"Not anything. Quite a bit though, depending on how strong they were magically."  
  
"How strong were they?" Draco asked from the back of the classroom.  
  
"Well Mr. Malfoy, it is said that the old masters could bend reality to their whims."  
  
"I don't believe that," Draco said and crossed his arms.  
  
"It is very likely true. The magic that we possess today is like a drop of color added to a gallon of water. Magic then was like a gallon of color with no water. It was very influential and pervasive that Muggles were as rare as wizards are today, if not rarer. Almost everyone wielded some form of magic or another."  
  
"There were different types of magic?" Harry asked, sort of already knowing where she was going.  
  
"Of course. Some focused on healing, some on defense, some on offense, as well as those that were Dark." Ron immediately looked at Draco and the Slytherin returned his stare.  
  
"As long as there has been light, there has been dark," she said, ignoring the small staring contest. "That is the way it always will be." A few glances asked her why, so she continued. "Ask yourself this, can you have light without darkness?"  
  
"Sure you can," Ron said loudly.  
  
"But how would you know what is was without comparison?" Messina got no answer from Ron to that question. "Well, I seem to have digressed. I didn't set out to give a history lesson, but an introduction to a new magical theory. Some people will shun this approach as they do everything different, but with Dumbledore's approval, I will show you, or at least attempt to show you how to do this." A murmur ran through the classroom like wildfire on a windy day. Even the Slytherin seemed interested in something that went against the tradition.  
  
Messina sat on her desk and put her hands together. "So, put away all your wands, books, and anything else you might have, except your quills." Hermione felt slightly shocked at that and her face showed it.  
  
"I'm sorry, Hermione, but this is a silence that you can't learn from a page." Hermione faked a bit of drama and set all her other items on the floor beside her desk and gave her attention to the Professor.  
  
  
  
Well, I know that isn't the best place to stop, but the next part is rather long and my hands hurt from typing. It might seem a little slow now, but once I get past the initial training, things will pick up dramatically, I promise. Just hang in there. Oh, and Mare, I know this isn't 'Resurrection' but don't worry, it's coming.. 


	3. Class

Before you start this next installment, here is a second little Author's Notes segment.  
  
1) after this chapter I'm going to stop referring to their ability as a 'power'. it is the Force, and that is what I shall call it from now on. 'Power' seems to lessen the mystique of it somewhat in my opinion. I'd change it now, but I've already written the chapter before the AN, so next time.  
  
2)In Star Wars, there are three basic parts of the Force around which powers are based. One is Alter, basically the changing of the distribution and nature of the Force. Someone with Alter powers can move things with his mind, help others control their own Force, as well as change the Force in his own body. It also can be used to influence the minds of others. Control is the second. Someone with Control based powers can master his own body and gain harmony with the Force. Sense is the third part. Someone with Sense based powers can feel the Force in all things and feel how they are interrelated.  
  
Most of the skills are combination of two or sometimes three of the base parts. Don't worry, I won't go into all that, I just wanted to give a little background on it. Most of what I see the Force as comes from the extremely awesome West End Games version of the SW roleplaying game. I could honestly never have seen the new version and been just fine. Wizards of the Coast made the new version and as far as I'm concerned they watered down the Force way too much. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a good deal of the uniqueness of SW is the Force, right? Well, they made the Jedi nearly worthless. I'll stop preaching the horrors of the new game now.. I'll just say that if you are into roleplaying SW, the second (West End) edition is the way to go. I refuse to play the new one..  
  
About Messina Jade. You're almost right, Neca, about Jade. Here is her story. I was running a SW game a while back and I had a Jedi Master character named Messina. I took the name from Jo Dee Messina, my favorite red-headed country music singer. I based her off of Mara, but never gave her last name. In my mind, she was Mara's sister or whatever. Somehow related. Anyway, that's it, short and sweet.  
  
One more thing, thanks go out to Crystal104, Sa'ida, and of course Neca for reviewing. Now, when we last left our favorite characters, they were in class..  
  
  
  
"I'm sorry, Hermione, but this is a silence that you can't learn from a page." the Professor told her and Hermione faked a bit of drama and set all her other items on the floor beside her desk and gave her attention to the Professor. She set her quill in front of her and gave her attention to the Professor.  
  
"Now, everyone put your quills in front of you and, now I know this will sound very odd, but try to 'feel' the quill, not with your hands but with your mind. Turn it over in your mind. Feel the small imperfections in the wood, the grain, the softness of the tip, feel it." Messina looked over the class, seeing many of them eyeing her with a bit of hesitation "Go on, just try it." The students turned their attention to their quills and began staring intently at them.  
  
Messina hopped off the desk and started walking between the tables, nodding at the feelings she was getting, or in a few cases, not getting. "Do you feel it?" she asked and received a few mumbled 'uh-huhs' in response. She continued pacing around the room, reaching out to the students individually. "Now, lift it with your will, not your hands." Messina got quite a few glances of disbelief and she simply nodded at them. "Go on, try." Heads refocused on the quills again. "Lift it in your mind, visualize it happening."  
  
Surprising everyone, especially himself, Neville's quill twitched and then slowly rose into the air above his desk. "Ahhhh!" Neville cried out in surprise and the quill fell back down.  
  
"Very good, Mr. Longbottom, very good." everyone's attention shifted to Neville and he started to blush. "So Mr. Longbottom, can you tell us how you did it?"  
  
"Um, well, I really can't explain it. I felt it in my mind like you said, and then I 'really' felt it and I could move it around." He looked at Messina and she nodded reassuring at him and motioned for him to continue. "I raised it in my head and then it started to jerk around and then levitated. That's about all I can really say about it."  
  
"Students, Neville has explained his way of doing it, but don't worry in the least if you don't do it like that. Everyone draws it a little differently." Messina strolled back up to the front of the room and sat back on the front of the desk again. "Now, everyone try again."  
  
For the next thirty minutes or so the class continued to attempt what many of them considered the impossible. During that time, Neville raised his quill a few more times and a few others did as well.  
  
"Now class," Messina said as she again got off the table and stood before them, "how do you feel, especially those of you who succeeded?"  
  
"I feel tired, my mind is tired, I guess," Harry said. He had scooted his quill across the table a few inches but never got it off the surface.  
  
"Yeah, it's like I stayed up all night, like I'm exhausted," Seamus said, another of the small club that moved their quills.  
  
"Exactly as I expected. You are drawing upon previously untapped reserves and the beginning is never easy. I assure you that over the next few days it will become easier. You might not believe me at first, but it will."  
  
"Why is it tiring like that?" Hermione asked, even though her quill had remained firmly rooted on the table.  
  
"It is like that because you are drawing on your own abilities and not the wand's. As I said, over time it will grow simpler and this little exercise will seem trivial." Messina regarded Hermione and saw that she still had something else on her mind. "Is there something else, Hermione?"  
  
Hermione hesitated for a moment. "Well, yes. Earlier you said that we were drawing on a power that was in our blood, and my parents are both Muggles. So I guess what I'm asking is do I have this ability?"  
  
"Everyone has the ability Hermione. Some people just never develop the skill necessary to draw it out. And while I'm on the subject I'll say a bit more. Some of you might much more and much sooner than others. This is nothing to be concerned about." Messina looked out and saw a few reassured faces and a few questioning looks.  
  
"Think of your innate power as a body of water," she said as she motioned her hands out in an expansive gesture. "Right now, your body of water is completely uncharted. It's depth, width, everything about it is an unknown. Some of you may have a rather small reservoir right now, maybe no bigger than a swimming pool. Others may be as large as the lake outside the window. Then again, some of you might have an ocean of power laying inside you." Messina knew Hermione's next question before she even voiced it and never gave her the chance.  
  
"Over time and with training and practice, you each can increase the size of your 'reservoir', possibly immeasurably. So, before you leave, take this small piece of advice with you. Don't become disheartened if in a month you can still not move the quill more than an inch. It took me nearly as long when I first began my training to get it off the desk."  
  
A quick silence fell over the class as her words soaked in. Ron broke it in typical Ron fashion. "So, Professor Jade, what exactly can you do?" Hermione looked at him as if she couldn't believe he'd have the audacity to ask her like that. Messina just smiled at him for a moment.  
  
Instead of answering him directly, she simply stared off into the air for a half second then all of the quills on the desks launched themselves into the air, quick as lightning. They seemed to be dancing to some odd rhythm, bouncing and swaying to the left and right. They finished their little polka number and set themselves gently back on the desks.  
  
"Have a great afternoon and I'll see you tomorrow." Messina smiled at them all and made her way out of the room, leaving an utter silence in her wake. It was at least thirty seconds before anyone so much as moved, much less spoke. Finally, it was again Ron that broke the silence.  
  
"Wicked," was all he said and that more than spoke for the entire class. Heads nodded in agreement and the students slowly got their belongings and filed out, completely amazed.  
  
"I saw it with my own eyes, and I still don't believe it," Harry said as they made their way back to the Gryffindor tower to drop off their books before heading outside for a bit of relaxation before homework.  
  
"Tell me about it Harry, it was awesome, wasn't it?" Seamus piped in as they were heading up one of many flights of steps.  
  
"It sure was impressive," Hermione said with a hint of sadness in her voice.  
  
"What's wrong?" Harry asked her in concern.  
  
"I don't know, Harry. All the time we were in there I didn't feel a single thing. It's like I'm back in Divinations again. I never got the faintest tingle in there and I kind of wonder if it will be the same in here."  
  
"You were probably not trying hard enough," Ron interjected.  
  
After another Hermione look of death, she told him "Yes, Ron, I was trying. I tried everything I could possibly do. I tried to feel it, I tried to imagine it moving in my mind, everything. This is probably going to be Divinations all over again." Hermione hung her head just a little and continued walking.  
  
"Nonsense, Hermione. If Neville here can do it, you surely can," Dean told her as he put an arm around Neville, getting a cry of indignation in the process.  
  
"Hey, it's about time I'm able to do something," he said and puffed his chest out as far as he could.  
  
"I didn't mean it as an insult, Neville. I'm just saying that since you've had almost no luck with quite a few things here in the last four years, anything is possible." Neville looked partially appeased at that and let it drop.  
  
"I hope you're right, Dean, although I wouldn't count on it. Me doing things like she did are about as likely as Snape washing his hair." This brought a round of chuckles that carried them up the last few flights of steps and to their common room door. Neville spoke the password and they went inside.  
  
Once inside they all went to their respective dorm rooms and set their belongings in their proper place, which of course for Ron was on the floor. Harry pulled a Frisbee from his trunk and showed it to his roommates and they nodded. It was almost a palpable thought that a game of quiddich or anything else strenuous was right out after the last class. Frisbee was simple and didn't require all that much movement so it was perfect. The five of them, Harry, Ron, Seamus, Neville, and Dean made their way back down and waited for Hermione to make her appearance.  
  
Five minutes passed with no sign of her and Seamus was about to go and fetch her when she came down the steps.  
  
"Aye, it's about time," he called. "I thought you got lost or something."  
  
"Sorry, I got sort of sidetracked," she said and faked a grin.  
  
"Ready to go toss the Frisbee around?" Harry asked her.  
  
"No, actually I think I'll stay in. I feel quite tired, really. You boys go on and have a good time. I'm going to rest up before dinner."  
  
"Sure about that, Hermione?" Harry asked. "This is a good way to relax."  
  
"I know Harry, but you boys ahead. I'll likely take a little nap. Go on." Hermione made shoo-ing gestures and they started all out the door. As it shut behind them she went back up the steps and returned to her room. She found herself alone and instead of napping she took her quill out and set it on the desk and began to try again to make it move, just a bit. A centimetre would be fine. She furrowed her brow and set to work.  
  
Outside the boys were having a fine time. Spaced in a pentagon shape they tossed the tin back and forth.  
  
"So why do you guys think that if this power we all have is so old that no one has ever mentioned it before?" Dean said as he tossed to Neville.  
  
"Maybe because no one has seen fit to teach it in all these years?" Harry guessed.  
  
"Well then, where did Professor Jade learn it from?" Ron asked.  
  
"That is a good question," Seamus said. "Maybe it's only taught to a few people at any time?"  
  
"Maybe you have to show an aptitude for it?" Neville hazarded his own guess.  
  
"Did we show an aptitude for it then? I don't remember taking any test where I had to move a quill with my mind at any recent time," Ron said.  
  
"Perhaps Dumbledore has decided to change the curriculum a little," Harry said and tossed to Ron.  
  
"Maybe it has something to do with You-Know-Who?" Neville squeaked out.  
  
"What do you mean exactly, Neville?" Harry asked, intrigued by the point.  
  
"Well, maybe since You-Know-Who has been gaining support and power in the last few years, he can't be defeated by what we know now, normal magic. Maybe he has the same power.."  
  
"And we will have to fight fire with fire," Seamus finished quickly with a small glitter in his eye.  
  
"I doubt that they are going to toss us into battle anytime soon, Seamus," Harry said. "We still can barely cast decent spells normally, not to mention hardly move a quill on a table."  
  
"I didn't mean now, Harry. Anyway, who knows, except for Dumbledore." Seamus said and they continued tossing the Frisbee to and fro until the sun began to dip near the horizon and they realized it was time for dinner.  
  
While the boys were tossing the Frisbee around, Hermione was in her room doing her absolute best to get the quill to move. She had been at it for nearly an hour with no success. "Come on, move, won't you?" she pleaded and tried again. She closed her eyes and concentrated. She visualized the quill floating, but to no avail. Frustration was setting in now.  
  
"Why can't I do this?" she asked the room. "What is so wrong with me that I can't even make a quill float? I know all sorts of spells, and Professor Jade said that everyone can do it, so why can't I?" She went and poured herself a glass of water and after downing it quickly tried some more, determined to get it before dinnertime.  
  
"Move, dammit!!" she yelled, finally losing her patience altogether. To her surprise, the quill jumped off the desk and hovered in front of her face. "Ha," she exclaimed and reveled in her new success. As she laughed the quill fell back down, but she was satisfied because it moved at all.  
  
About that time, the others made their way back inside to wash up for dinner. Hermione was just heading down the steps to wait for them, her experiment over, when she saw them step through the door.  
  
"Hey Hermione, we were just going to get you for dinner," Harry said as the door shut behind him.  
  
"Yeah, we're starving," Ron said in typical Ron fashion.  
  
"Do you feel any better? Did you get any rest?" Neville asked. She smiled. You could always count on Neville for concern like that.  
  
Hermione started to lie and say that she felt better, but she really did. She felt refreshed somehow. Maybe it wouldn't tax her as much as some of the others when she used her power. "Yeah, I do feel better, Neville. Thanks. You guys get cleaned up and let's get to the Great Hall."  
  
A round of cleaning up later, the group of them made their way downstairs.  
  
  
  
Uh oh, what exactly did Hermione do there??? Doesn't sound too good, eh? Was that the Dark Side? Well, wait and see. Drop me a review if you will. The more reviews I get the more motivated I get to write the next chapter. And since this story is battling two others for typing time, well, you know..  
  
energy 


	4. The Dark Side and Two Months

Last time we visited Hogwarts, Hermione had just harnessed a little power that she didn't know about. The boys were tossing a Frisbee around. Dinner was eaten and beds were filled.  
  
Everyone's favorite class rolled around again and the students were awaiting Professor Jade to arrive. The room was open and they had taken their seats and had nothing but a quill sitting in front of them. Idle but quiet chat filled the silence until Messina Jade arrived.  
  
"Welcome back, class. I trust that most if not all of you continued the lesson after we broke yesterday, correct?" Many heads nodded in unison, including Hermione's. "I figured as much." Messina began pacing across the front of the room. "How many of you who had no luck in class were able to do it later on in the day?" About half the hands in the class raised.  
  
"Again, as I expected. And, as I felt." Quite a few students looked at her funny. She stopped her pacing and took a seat on the front of the desk, facing them all. "I see by your faces that you don't understand what I mean. Allow me to explain." She adjusted her robes and started.  
  
"Each time you call upon the Force you create a ripple in it. For small things such as lifting a quill the ripple is very small but still noticeable to someone looking for it. I felt many such ripples yesterday," she said as she looked around the room. Her gaze held on Hermione for a moment before moving on. "As I said I felt many ripples, one of which caused me a bit of concern. Hermione, you raised your quill last night, correct?"  
  
"Yes, Professor Jade, I did."  
  
"Would you tell the class how you accomplished this?"  
  
"Of course. I was trying to do it for probably an hour or so before I got very irritated by the fact I couldn't do it and then I got mad. After I did that the quill jumped off the desk."  
  
"Thank you Hermione. That is as I thought it happened. Hermione, what you did was tap into another facet of the Force, the Dark Side." The class went completely silent and there wasn't even the sound of a breath being drawn. "I should have said this from the beginning but I thought I could wait a little longer." Messina Jade again rose from the desk and walked around.  
  
"You all must promise me that you will never use the Force when you are anything but calm at heart. If you call upon it when you are not, and Hermione, I am by no means upset with you in the least, you risk starting down the dark path." Hermione's face took an ashen shade to it and she shrank a little in her seat.  
  
"I'm sorry, Professor."  
  
"As I said, I'm not upset with you. It is my fault. I should tell you a little about that side of the Force. The Dark Side has always been around and it always will be. It lures people in by promising them quick and easy power but it exacts a high price. Your body and soul begin to darken and become tainted. Slowly you become evil, a little at first, but it picks up speed."  
  
"The Dark Side is not stronger than the Light, only quicker. I hope those words are impressed on you from this moment on. Now, I don't want to dwell on this fact now but I will later. Today we shall try a different exercise."  
  
"I wonder how long Draco has been in the Dark Side?" Ron whispered to Harry.  
  
"Oh, probably since the day he was born," Harry whispered back. Hermione's evil eye stopped any further whispering.  
  
"Now, I want you all to close your eyes and try to feel everything around you. It might sound odd, but try it." All eyes shut and Messina closed hers as well.  
  
Harry had shut his eyes and was feeling as hard as he could and getting nothing. He cleared his mind and tried again as he had when he was trying to lift the quill. Out of nowhere he felt everything. Everything at once, actually. His eyes shot open and he found himself looking right into Jade's eyes.  
  
"Very good Harry. Sort of disturbing, huh?"  
  
"Yes. Everything was like a bunch of paints all tossed together, nothing coherent."  
  
"Right. Try again and this time focus on Ron. The same goes for all of you. Pick someone in class and try to feel them."  
  
Harry tried again and the mess of colors slowly faded into what he only guessed could be called shapes. He felt Ron clearly as if he were looking at him. He felt like he was slightly anxious, Harry thought.  
  
Jade let the exercise go on for ten minutes before calling for their attention again. "Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe that everyone succeeded, right?" every head nodded affirmatively. "Good. Sensing the Force is one of the three basic abilities and in my opinion the simplest to master. You aren't manipulating anything or making something do something else, only feeling."  
  
"Professor, when I felt Ron for the first time, I got the feeling he was anxious or upset. Is that normal? Could I really tell something like that?" Harry asked.  
  
"Yes Harry, you can. I felt it on Ron as well. He was nervous that he wouldn't be able to do this, right Ron?"  
  
"Yeah, that was about how I was feeling."  
  
"That was the second of the three base skills, and I will show the third, control before you leave today." Messina Jade showed them the third (which I really don't feel like writing out because I want to get into the story already.)  
  
By the time the class was over for the day the entire class was mentally exhausted. This was far beyond the first day, by a factor of ten at least. The class filed out quietly and returned to their houses. Even Draco didn't have enough left in him to throw one snide comment at the Gryffindors as they passed.  
  
Two months have now passed and the students are well on their way to learning the ways of the Force. Some have advanced much slower than others, but all have made progress. During the last class before a Hogsmeade weekend, Messina Jade had them all practicing different skills. She sat in the front of the room and one by one studied them in the Force. You could call what she was doing 'sounding', testing the depths, for lack of a better term. Not too surprisingly she found Harry to have a seemingly bottomless reserve of power. Draco, Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville also seemed to have large reserves. Also not surprising was the shallowness of Hermione's. Hermione gave her utmost effort every day but was struggling at what had become simple to the others. Jade dismissed the class and went on her way for the afternoon. She had little to do until her next morning's breakfast with the Headmaster.  
  
"Good morning, Messina," Dumbledore said as she was walking up to the teacher's table.  
  
"And to you, Headmaster."  
  
"So, how has the experiment gone so far?" He asked her, eyes glittering.  
  
"It is going much better than I'd ever expected to be quite honest. Many of the students are racing through lessons and exercises almost as fast as I did."  
  
"See, and you were worried that you'd lost your teaching edge."  
  
"It's been many years, Headmaster, since I last had a student. A single student, I might add, not close to fifty."  
  
"You are doing an admirable job in any case Messina. Tell me about the students if you would."  
  
"Of course. I'll start with the obvious. Just as you said he might, Harry Potter might well have the strength of the old Masters with enough time. His potential nearly floored me when I felt it yesterday. It was incredible."  
  
"I thought he would. I sensed a little of it when he first came here and I can only imagine what it must be now that he's had even the most basic training."  
  
"He is an incredibly fast learner as well. I'd bet my robe that he will be at my level inside of a year, maybe not even six months."  
  
"You underestimate yourself, Messina."  
  
"On the contrary, I think you're underestimating Potter."  
  
"Very well. Go on."  
  
"The student that has surprised me the most as of yet is Neville Longbottom. From everything that I've heard about him nearly being a Squib, he also has great potential."  
  
Dumbledore chuckled at that. "I'm not surprised. Neville always has a way of surprising everyone."  
  
"Well, he is nearly at the same level as Harry, but not progressing as quickly. Seamus and Ron are also in the same category, as well as Dean."  
  
"Are all the proficient students in Gryffindor?" Dumbledore asked her.  
  
"Not all, but a large percentage of the fifth years seem to be. Of the Slytherin fifth years, only Draco Malfoy and Aeric Arnot are showing real potential. The rest are succeeding but at a slow pace."  
  
"And the other two houses?"  
  
"Most of their talent seems to be in the fourth years. The Ware twins, Eli and Valin, show the most potential from Ravenclaw. From Hufflepuff it looks like Codi Wolf is the most promising."  
  
"Good. The only problem is that we might not be around here long enough for them to get higher training," Dumbledore said.  
  
"I'm glad you brought that point up, Headmaster. It saves me the trouble. What I would like to do is twofold. One is to meet more often. I can't push them much harder in the time we have now or they will pass out, but there is so much that I need to teach them and not enough time." Dumbledore pondered that for a moment.  
  
"And your second point?"  
  
"I would like to start the training of the lower years. I feel it will be vitally important to whatever is on the horizon."  
  
"I agree with you on both counts, Messina. I do have reservations however. What becomes of the younger students who will only just now begin their training if."  
  
"I see your point, Headmaster, but my instincts tell me that we must do it. I know that you mean what will happen to a student that doesn't finish enough training to know how to control his new powers and know the right ways to use them."  
  
"Exactly. Remember what happened the last time a student didn't complete his training, Messina?"  
  
"He is hardly an example, Headmaster."  
  
"Ah, but he is. He may have only had rudimentary training, much as I see the younger students getting, but it was enough to start him down the road to evil."  
  
"I did not come here to speak of my past failure, Headmaster," Messina said, showing a little agitation for the first time since she'd arrived in Hogwarts, "but of potential successes."  
  
"Very well. I didn't mean to start down that road, but I felt I needed to in order to.."  
  
"I understand. You are right, but I still feel it is necessary."  
  
"As I said, I agree with you. So, it will happen. Starting Monday we will expand to the third and second years. I won't condone anyone younger because they have enough to deal with already."  
  
"I concur."  
  
"What about the older students, Messina?"  
  
"I've studied most of them already. They are too ingrained in their current path. Any deviation to the Force might hamper both studies for them. Basically they are too old."  
  
"I see. I'll trust your judgment. Now, tell me how the training goes for young master Creevey?"...  
  
  
  
Alright. Finally I'm where I want to be in the story. I just couldn't bare to go through 'class' anymore going over the basics. I was putting myself to sleep doing it. So, I jumped ahead a few months to where it is starting to get good. In the near future, Harry and company will gain their lightsabres. Hooray! To me, that is an integral part of star wars. Look for the actual story to emerge in the next couple of chapters. Now, who was Jade's old pupil? Was it You-Know-Who? Well, I guess you just have to wait and see, huh?  
  
Hope you've enjoyed this so far, tell me in a review. Hell, tell me if you hated it as long as you tell me how to change it.  
  
energy 


	5. Storm Gathering

Much time has passed since I last updated this and I wish I hadn't waited. I just finished reading 'Order' and I am now incredibly inspired. I hope that all my earlier reviewers are still around for this. Now that Order of the Phoenix is out, I'll have to change my storyline a bit, make it a little more AU than it already was, but it might make it more interesting. Everything that happens after Harry and company returns to Hogwarts (hah! No spoilers here after all!) just won't happen. Harry knows about the Order, but that's all. I've blathered too much now, so on with the story.  
  
The weekend passed and the new school week was looming on the horizon. Harry and the other Gryffindors were sitting in the common room talking about what Professor Jade had mentioned the previous week.  
"She said she'd show us the true weapon of, of, what did she call them? Jerkies?" Seamus asked the group while unwrapping a Chocolate Frog.  
"No, she called them Jedi, Seamus," a voice called from just outside their little circle of chairs. Heads turned to see the small face of Colin Creevey looking at them from one of the many couches. Ron rolled his eyes. Hermione gave Ron the eye.  
"Jedi, that's right. So what do you think that their weapon would be?" No one had an definitive answer for Seamus but their were more than a few guesses.  
"I bet is has something to do with our wands," Colin said as he moved to a chair a bit closer to the conversation.  
"How would that work, Colin?" Ron asked him a bit harshly, causing Colin to sink back into his seat. It also caused Hermione to stomp on Ron's toes as hard as she could. "Ow!! What was that for?" "What do you think it was for?" Hermione and Ron exchanged icy glances for a few seconds before Ron bent down and removed his shoe and massaged his toes. "I think that Colin might be on to something. I don't know exactly how it would work, but I agree with him."  
"I guess we'll all just have to wait until tomorrow afternoon to find out won't we?" Neville asked after they'd all fallen silent for a moment. He was agreed with and the group turned in shortly thereafter.  
The next morning's classes went by quite slowly. If it were possible for Professor Binns lectures to be any more boring than normal, they were. Even Charms, a class that Harry genuinely liked, seemed to drag by. Finally, after lunch, they got to the class they had all been waiting for.  
The group hurried into the classroom and took their seats, waiting for Professor Jade to appear. She joined them in a few moments, looking a bit harried and a lot anxious. Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged interested glances.  
"Students, I'm sorry to have kept you, but I had a small amount of business to attend to before I arrived here." She started walking around the front of the room for a few moments while she collected her thoughts. "What I'm about to show you is the cornerstone of the Jedi way. Now, if I can have Mr. Longbottom's assistance with my demonstration, we'll begin. Bring your wand, Neville."  
A hush fell over the classroom and Neville nearly fell over his own feet on his way to the front of the classroom. "I will not faint, I will not faint," Neville told himself as he stood at Jade's feet. He knew that he had the skills to do whatever she asked, but his stage fright was not letting his mind realize that fact. He was squeezing his wand so tightly that you could easily see his white knuckles from Harry's table halfway back.  
"Neville is so nervous," Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione, "he thinks he might faint."  
"We know he can do it and he should too," Hermione told them both and silently cheered him on.  
Harry cheered as well, but in a slightly different way. He reached inside himself and sent warm feelings shooting toward Neville, encouraging him. Professor Jade looked his way and gave Harry a large but quick smile. Neville seemed to almost instantly pick his self confidence off the floor. His posture improved and he released the death grip on his wand.  
"Now, Neville, I want you to focus on your wand, focus hard. Reach down deep inside it, feel the power that the wand possesses. Do you feel it?"  
"Ye-yes, yes I can. It feels incredible, like ah, I don't know, something immense."  
"Exactly. Now, hold the wand out in front of you, like this," she said as she repositioned Neville's stance. He now had both hands on the wand, holding it similar to a baseball bat , but straight out in front of him. "What I want you to do is draw the power inside the wand out through the tip." Jade took a few steps back and watched.  
Neville looked thoughtfully at his wand for a moment before he screwed his eyes up in concentration. A small hum began to fill the classroom and the other students edged forward in their chairs. In a split second a beam of green light extended three feet from the tip of Neville's wand. He nearly dropped it in surprise, barely hanging on.  
Murmurs shot through the students like a flu virus. "What?" "How?" "No way!" Even Draco, who had seemed less than impressed through most of the lessons so far this term, joined the buzz.  
"What Neville has just produced for us is the weapon of a true Jedi, a lightsabre. This blade is extremely dangerous, just as lethal as the Unforgivable Curses, but much easier to wield. May I see your blade for a moment, Neville?" Neville nodded and carefully handed his wand to her.  
Slowly waving around the lightsabre, the blade making that eerie sound again. "This blade can cut through nearly anything given enough time." Without giving the students time to breathe after her words, Professor Jade quickly turned on her heels and sliced her wooden desk in half in less than a heartbeat. Open mouths filled the seats when she turned around.  
"Now, listen to my next words very, very carefully," Jade spoke very slowly now, "I will aid you all in your attempts to activate your wands, but you must not, and I mean never, do so outside of this classroom. I don't care if Professor McGonagall says 'Hermione, would you show me your blade please'. The only exception to this rule will be if Headmaster Dumbledore agrees to tutor some of you. If I find that you have broken this rule I can assure you that you'll be expelled quicker than you can blink an eye."  
Professor Jade surveyed the class. "Is anyone in disagreement with what I've just said?" Silence answered her. "Very good. Now, let's begin."  
The class carried on way too quickly for everyone. Once they'd learned to activate and deactivate their wands quickly and easily it was already time to go. Small talk filled the room as the students became familiar with the procedure.  
"Professor Jade," Hermione asked just before the class was to be dismissed, "why are our blades different colors? It shouldn't be the components, since both Harry and Neville has the same type of wand, but Neville's blade was green and Harry's was orange."  
"That is an interesting question, Hermione. I honestly don't have an answer for you. In old times, these weapons were made with crystals that determined the color, but now it just happens how it happens."  
"Thank you, Professor."  
"Not a problem, Hermione. Now, unless there are any other questions, class dismissed. Oh, Harry, could you stay after just a moment?" Harry nodded and waited behind as the other students filed out. Harry motioned for Hermione and Ron to go along and came up to part of Jade's desk.  
"What can I do for you, Professor?" Harry asked once the door had closed behind the last student.  
"Harry, I wanted to ask you about what you did while Neville was preparing to demonstrate for us."  
"Oh, uh, did I do something wrong?" Harry asked quite nervously.  
"No, no, nothing of the sort. I would just like to know if this was something that you've done before. You felt him cheer up, didn't you?"  
"Yes I did. It was like he was hit with a Cheering Charm."  
"Exactly. What you did is something that I believe is called tele- empathy," she saw and felt Harry's confusion. "Tele-empathy is the ability to affect someone's mind and is a very difficult technique to master."  
"I.really?"  
"Yes. It is one of the last things that a student would learn. What you did was a very basic form of it, but it was tele-empathy nonetheless."  
"Why is it such a difficult thing, Professor? It seemed pretty simple. I just wanted him to be less nervous and it worked."  
"The skill you performed is a combination of all three of the building blocks of the Force, Harry. Sense, Control, and Alter. You sensed Neville's nervousness, controlled your own Force, and altered Neville's state of mind. It is a very complex procedure, something that I myself aren't all that well at." Harry looked dumbstruck. He was better than a teacher at something? That seemed as farfetched as Harry being better than Snape at Potions.  
"Wow," was all that Harry could say. He felt a bit embarrassed for some reason.  
"Don't be ashamed of what you can do, Harry. The Force is very strong in some people. Also, some people excel in certain aspects of it more than others. I can hardly do what you do, but I can move things like there is no tomorrow. I am also not too shabby of a duelist, if I may say so." Harry grinned at her, his embarrassment forgotten.  
"There is one more thing I would like to ask you before you go, Harry." She looked at him but he had absolutely no intention of refusing her. "I am considering an extra session a week for those students who seem to be above the class average. Would you be interested?"  
"Of course I would!" Harry said with a little more gusto than he intended. "Who else would be there? If you can tell me, that is."  
"I can surely tell you. Ron, Seamus, the older Creevey brother. I can never remember which one he is."  
"Colin," Harry told her.  
"Right, Colin. Anyway, he, Dean, Draco Malfoy, and a few others. Oh, and Neville. A half dozen or so students from each house"  
Harry was wondering if she'd forgotten about Neville. Neville and he seemed to be on about the same level skill-wise. He wasn't really surprised at her not mentioning Hermione. This seemed like Divination all over again. She put out the effort but got minimal results. She did activate her blade though.  
"Harry? Harry?" Professor jade said as she waved a hand in front of his face. He jumped back to reality.  
"Sorry, Professor."  
"It's no problem. You can go. I'm off to meet with the Headmaster." Harry and the Professor both left the room, Harry heading in one direction and Jade in the other.  
  
Back in Gryffindor Tower, Harry met back up with his group. "What did Professor Jade want to talk to you about, Harry?" Ron asked him the moment he'd settled in a chair.  
"She wanted to talk to me about what I'd done to Neville earlier in class."  
"That was you?" Neville asked, a bit amazed. "It was really neat. It was like I had someone with me, urging me on. It was almost like someone was holding my hand while I was up there." Harry got a few puzzled looks so he explained what he had done and what Jade had told him afterward. He left out the part of the extra classes though. They continued talking about class for the better part of an hour before they finally broke for dinner.  
  
"Sugar quill," Jade said as she made her way to the Headmaster's office. She found Albus sitting in his chair, waiting for her.  
"I trust the lessons are still going well, Messina?"  
"Better than well, Headmaster. The majority of the students are picking it up much more quickly than I'd ever imagined. Much quicker than myself as well. And," already knowing Dumbledore's next question, "almost as quickly as him."  
"I see. I guess that is a blessing then."  
"The Force tells me it is."  
"So what can I do for you, Messina?" Dumbledore asked her, sure that she wasn't here just for a cup of tea.  
"I would like your permission to tutor some of the more adept students outside of class in some of the more difficult aspects of the Force."  
"I think that would be an acceptable idea. You have a group of students in mind, I suppose?"  
"Yes, I do."  
"Good. I think you should start as soon as you are ready, for I think we are quickly running out of time," Dumbledore told her.  
"I believe you are right, Headmaster. The storm is quick approaching. I have seen it. 


	6. Interludes

Interlude One  
  
Harry had just returned with his housemates from the latest round of extra class with Professor Jade. He fell into an armchair near Hermione in near exhaustion. "Another hard class, Harry?" Hermione asked him from behind her Charms notes.  
"Yes. Incredibly so. It feels like my limbs are made of lead." Seamus and a few of the others agreed to this as they flopped down nearby.  
"What have you all been studying this time?" Hermione asked, her interest piqued since she wasn't in the special sessions.  
"More telekinesis, like the last two days. It's getting easier but it is still quite draining," Harry said and put a hand behind his head.  
"We're getting quite proficient in it, Professor Jade said," Colin told her, "Harry and Neville and Seamus especially." Neville blushed and Harry and Seamus looked away from the extra attention.  
"He's right, Harry, she said so, Hermione," Ron told her. "He levitated all of us while Professor Jade did anything and everything she could think of to throw off his concentration."  
"Aye, he did it real well until the end," Seamus said as he rubbed his backside.  
"Oh, I almost forgot, Hermione," Dean told her, "She asked me to give you this." Dean took a small sheet of parchment out of his robes and handed it to Hermione. She opened it and began reading.  
"Miss Granger, I know that you have been giving your best and have been receiving mild results. I was pondering earlier and I might have found something for you. There is another path of the Force, that of healing. If you would be interested in giving this a try, come to my office tonight after dinner and I'll give you a quick description."  
"So, what's it say, Hermione?" Neville asked her, just barely unable to see over her shoulder.  
"Professor Jade would like to see me this evening after we eat to discuss something."  
"She isn't mad, is she?" Colin asked her. Hermione shook her head no.  
"No, she thinks she might have found something I'd be better at, that's all." They further discussed the day's events until dinner drew near.  
  
Interlude Two  
  
"I've had another premonition, Headmaster," Messina told Dumbledore as they met in the hallways after the last class of the day.  
"I'm sure you did. I felt it also."  
"How close to ready is the Order, Headmaster?"  
"We are ready and waiting for Voldemort to show himself."  
"How are the other plans?"  
"I created the portkeys earlier today."  
"I hope we never need them, but it would be foolish to be unprepared."  
"I agree, Messina. I unfortunately agree." The two of them walked silently down the hallways, both wishing what they'd foreseen wasn't on the verge of exploding all over them.  
Messina bid Dumbledore farewell and turned into the door leading to her private quarters. The coming storm lay like a fog over her mind. It was hard to see clearly into it, to glimpse a bit of the future. All that she was certain of was that whatever was going to happen was going to happen quite soon. She settled down onto a chair and tried to clear her mind. After a long struggle she was able to open herself further.  
She saw Hogsmeade in her mind, or at least what was left of it anyway. There were bodies strewn like a child's toys all over the grounds. The bodies were wearing both the robes of the Death Eaters and those of her fellow staff. She couldn't see faces, thankfully, and the scene switched. She was looking down upon a small island covered in snow. Faces looked up in her direction and she again couldn't make out a face. The scene changed a final time and this time she saw London in flames. She was brought back to the present by an evil presence in her mind. A ripple in the Force, a deadly one. She heard a ear-rattling scream and then felt the person pass on. She sighed deeply.  
"We must be ready. We absolutely must." There would be no more meditation for her for now. She instead turned her attentions to her students and the lesson she'd be giving Hermione later on in the evening.  
  
Interlude Three  
  
Death Eater Lucius Malfoy sat meditating. He'd been practicing a few of the techniques that he'd learned over the summer. An innocent Muggle lay lifeless in a corner of the room, a bit of smoke still occasionally rising from his crumpled form. 'Power,' he thought and smiled. He allowed hate to flow through him and felt completely re-energized. Scenes of death filled his mind, mostly the image of his own son dying at his hands.  
For at least a year now, Draco had been edging away from his father and the Dark Lord. Lucius knew, oh he surely knew, and he barely restrained himself from killing him over the summer. Only a direct order from Voldemort himself to leave the boy alive spared him. Lucius reluctantly agreed and allowed the boy to live. Draco had not openly voiced his new opinions but it didn't matter. Lucius had spies.  
Thinking back to when he and a handful of others had 'liberated' a small red pyramid from an ancient magical stronghold in Romania, Lucius allowed himself an even wider smile. It had started as a mysterious mission given to them by the Dark Lord but it had grown to so much more.  
  
The six of them flew low above the hills near the ancient castle of Onderan, deep in the wilderness of southern Europe. Apparating was ruled out as the whole area was said to be warded against it. The Death Eaters landed a quarter mile outside of the castle grounds and took stock of the area. There was hardly a light to be seen, not even in the sky. This mission had been planned to occur during the new moon as to give an added edge. They all knew that stealth was hardly a concern with the multitudes of magical charms that were sure to surround the castle, but a few extra seconds undetected by a simple peasant could mean the difference between success and failure.  
The group advanced quickly to the gates of the castles, a bit surprised at their luck. The front gate was blown to pieces by an incredibly destructive and specially learned spell and they rushed inside. "Caution," Lucius said as they advanced down the hallway. Still they had met no one. Lucius was torn between believing this would be incredibly easy or that they were walking into a trap.  
Down flight after flight of steps they went, following their instructions to the letter. The Dark Lord had seen this, this artifact, and its precise location in a dream, or so he told them. They'd just descended the last of the steps and entered a long underground hallway when Lucius heard a slight 'clink' behind him. The sounds of stone moving ever so slightly. He instinctively dropped to the ground and saved his own life. He happened to catch sight of a green blast of light that was racing through the spot that he had until very recently occupied.  
Lucius heard the short sound of a death cry and then a dull thud as one of his companions fell to the floor lifeless. A second thump quickly followed as more green bolts raced through the air above him. 'This isn't working,' he told himself. "Destructus!!" he yelled and a grapefruit sized ball of yellow energy raced toward the wall that seemed to be launching death at him. The wall erupted in an enormous explosion and the green rays ceased.  
Lucius slowly rose to his feet and looked back. Morton and Crimrow. He'd lost two of his men but he could have cared less. The job was more important than their lives. Whatever this little object they were was must be important to be guarded by lethal spells like that. The remaining Death Eaters cautiously went down the hallway ready for anything now.  
As they passed beyond the former wall and into a second shorter corridor he started to feel a dark malevolence in the air. It seemed to be beckoning them onward. They reached a door at the end of the hall and opened it from a distance. Nothing happened so they walked inside, wary as possible. There, sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room was a small red pyramid. "This is too easy," Lucius said quietly as they approached.  
As if on cue, panels in the ceiling opened and dropped horrible creatures in their midst. Before one of the Death Eaters could more than aim his wand he was ripped in two by a claw the size of a grown man's arm. Lucius and the others spun out of reach and began launching killing spells at the creatures. The spells seemed to have little affect but to make the creatures madder and more vicious. After ten minutes of combat the creatures were finally defeated. Two other Death Eaters had died, but the prize was at hand.  
Lucius strode forward, anxious to grab this thing before anything else could fall upon them. As he picked it up, he felt extreme power course through him. He admired the small object and was completely surprised when a red form slowly formed in front of him.  
"A long time to wait," the form said to him.  
"Who.who are you?" Lucius asked, the other Death Eaters too stunned to make a coherent sound.  
"I am Lord Bykov, a Master of the Dark Side. You hold in your hands the key to a vast power that you can barely comprehend."  
"Hold your tongue, wizard, I'm one of the strongest dark wizards you'll ever meet," Lucius said more than a bit taken aback.  
"Anger. That is good." The form was silent for a moment. "Your magic is but a faint whiff of bread in the wind compared to what I can teach you. I know the true power of the Dark Side."  
"The Dark Side? What is this 'Dark Side'?"  
"The roots of all your petty magic. Far stronger than anything you could possibly know at this moment." Lucius stood looking at Bykov without knowing what to say. "You certainly aren't smart enough to be the one I sensed before."  
"No, apparently not," Lucius snapped angrily and stuffed the pyramid in his robes and watched as the form dissipated. "Come on, we've got what we came for." The surviving Death Eaters made their way back out to their brooms and returned to their own Dark Lord.  
  
"Oh, how wrong I was," Lucius said as he rose from his feet. "This power is much stronger than any of the Unforgivable Curses. A sick grin crossed his face. "Oh, Draco. Soon you will learn what it means to be powerful." He pulled his wand out of his robes and watched as a dark green beam appeared at its end. "Soon." 


	7. Last Glimmer of Light

"Professor? Could I ask a question?" Neville asked during their next lesson.  
"Of course, Neville. What is it?"  
"Well, I, we actually," Neville said as he gestured to the group of Gryffindors around him, "were wondering why none of us have ever heard of the Force before and why it is being taught to us this year."  
"Ah, that is something that I should have answered long ago. Sit back and get comfortable, this might be a little while." Messina turned a chair around backwards and crossed her hands on the back of it, facing the class. "As I said at the start of the term, the Force and the Jedis predate magic as we know it by thousands of years. It has been called many different names by many different people, but it is all the same; the manipulation of the energies that purvey everything around us, for better or for worse."  
"Over time and for whatever reason, the number of people born with the ability to use the Force began to dwindle. There were never any large number of them at one time in Europe, maybe as many as the four houses of this school combined. Picking off one or two per generation might not seem like a big deal, but over the years the ones and twos add up to a large number. The number had declined to perhaps as few as are currently in this room around the time that many of the family lines we are familiar with today took root, Malfoy, for example."  
"While the number of true 'Force Mages' as they came to be called fell off, others had discovered ways to augment their remaining powers with wands and other such things, beginning the lines of the more familiar witches and wizards. It would seem that the latent ability had remained with the people, but their ability to access it had faded. With a wand it was again possible. So, while the 'Age of Magic' began, Force users sank into obscurity."  
"Weren't there any textbooks left by the early teachers?" Ron asked, now thoroughly intrigued by a new bit of history.  
"No, Ron. The Force is something that is nearly impossible to put down in print. The Masters showed their students through experience, not a textbook. Can you think of a way to accurately describe how you feel the Force?"  
"Well, not really," Ron said after he considered it for a moment.  
"Nor could the Masters. It is a much simpler way to show than to read."  
"I have a question then, Professor," Hermione said after she digested that.  
"Yes?"  
"I see why we haven't read any text by them, but surely there are some sort of stories about them, right?"  
"Oh, of course there are. You must look a little deeper into what you are reading. You've probably read hundreds of them without knowing them as such."  
"Ah," Hermione said. "They're not called Jedis, but other things."  
"Correct. Time has long forgotten the true nature of the events of the story, so they have changed them around to fit the current mind frame. Are you familiar with the tale of the ancient wizard Jesse Wallin?"  
Of course Hermione raised her hand, surprising no one. "He defeated the dark wizard Arkhopov in a fierce duel hundreds of years ago, right?" She sounded a bit worried about her answer after what she had just heard.  
"That he defeated Arkhopov is true, that he defeated him in a duel is also true, but the rest of the story is made up." The class looked questioningly at her. She smiled. "They dueled in the ways of the Jedi, nearly two thousand years ago, not hundreds, with lightsabres and the Force, not with silly spells. They were both Masters of the Force, Wallin of the light side and Arkhopov of the dark side. What else does the story say, Hermione?"  
"It says that upon Arkhopov's defeat the land cleared of blight and the sun shone brighter than it had in years."  
"That does have a glimmer of truth in it after all. Once Wallin defeated him, the remaining practitioners of the dark side of the Force fled England. Allegorically, the sun did shine brighter once the Dark Side was gone from England." The class fell silent, obviously rethinking many of the stories they'd heard as children.  
"It has always been said that the Force works in mysterious ways," Messina said after she gave them time to think, "and it seems to still be holding true. About two hundred years ago the numbers began to swing upwards again. When I was born forty five years ago," quite a few boys gasped as they realized their female idol was older than their mothers, "it seems that the floodgates were prime to open." She got up and walked around to stretch her legs.  
"Our numbers are still small, but growing. The gathering of the Force in this room is larger than any in hundreds of years. Open your minds and feel the power sitting in this room, the harmony, the peace." She did so herself and felt relaxation fill her, easing away any remaining stiffness in her legs. "Do you feel it? The old Masters would be proud."  
Harry closed his eyes and let himself feel the Force. He did feel a sense of power in the room, also a feeling of purpose. He shifted his attention to his Professor and felt a bit of unease and foreboding deep below the surface. He and the rest of the class basked in the feeling for a good minute.  
"Professor, has there ever been someone who was considered the most powerful of them all?" Ron asked, finally breaking the silence with his curiosity.  
"There have been many who have been immensely strong in one facet of the Force, but there has never really been a single person considered to be the best of the best." Ron almost looked sad, but his face perked up as she continued. "If I were to have to choose a single person to name as the most powerful all-around, I would have to choose Julian Gryffindor. He and his line have always been quite strong."  
"Would he be kin to the Godric Gryffindor that helped found this school?" Dean Thomas asked, a bit surprised.  
"Yes. He was his father. He was extremely powerful in both the Force and magic in general."  
"Why did his son found a magical school if he was a powerful Force user then?" Seamus asked quickly.  
"I don't know, Seamus. Perhaps Godric started it because he knew he wasn't as strong in the Force as he was in magic. We'll never know, really." The class was silent as they pondered for a few moments. Finally Messina started her lesson.  
  
After class was over the Gryffindors returned to their Common Room and started talking about the previous ninety minutes.  
"Harry, do you think that the reason that the majority of the extra class is from our House might be because of, of," Colin started, not quite being able to put his idea to words.  
"Because we possess the same ideals and qualities that Godric set down when Hogwarts was founded?" Hermione finished for him, obviously on the same line of thought. Colin nodded at her.  
"It might be. I really don't know." Harry put a hand on the bridge of his nose, his I'm-thinking-really-hard-about-something look. "I'm going to go lay down for a little while before dinner," he said as he got to his feet and left the other students. They watched in silence as he gained the steps and disappeared before anyone spoke. Hermione and Ron locked eyes for a moment. Ron got out of his chair and followed Harry to the dormitory. Colin and Neville got up to follow Ron, but Hermione grabbed their arms.  
"Let Ron do this," she said and they sat back down. Conversation slowly returned.  
Ron stood outside the door to their dormitory for a few seconds, putting his mind in order. He had a pretty good idea of what Harry was thinking about, or at he hoped he did. He slowly opened the door and walked across the stone floor to Harry's bed. Harry had taken his shoes off and was laying spread out on his back. Ron crossed to Harry's bed and sat on the edge of it. "Knut for your thoughts, Harry."  
"I'm just thinking, Ron, that's all," Harry said.  
"About Godric's sword when you fought the basilisk, right?" Ron asked, hoping he was right.  
"Yeah, that's part of it."  
"And about the talk that you might be an heir of his?"  
"Another part."  
"Want to unburden yourself?"  
"Do you really want to hear it all?"  
"Of course I do. We're best mates, Harry. Spill everything."  
"Alright. Like you said, I was thinking about all the talk that I might be an heir to Godric. Let's assume that only an heir could pull out the sword like Dumbledore said, or all but said. Now, let's add in what Professor Jade said today about he being one of the most powerful Masters that has ever lived." Ron nodded and let Harry continue uninterrupted. "Finally, throw in something she told me after class a few weeks ago."  
"What did she tell you?" Ron asked after Harry went quiet.  
"She said that I have an enormous potential, greater than any she can remember hearing about in centuries. She also said that by the end of the spring term she expects me to be more powerful than she is. She's been studying for almost forty years, Ron," Harry said as he looked Ron directly in the eye.  
"Well, if she believes all that, then why is it troubling you? I would think that it would be awesome to be a powerful Jedi like that."  
"It would be great Ron, but what have we learned always comes with power?" Ron didn't know what Harry wanted to hear, so he shrugged. "Responsibility. I don't know if I am ready for all that yet."  
"Why not, Harry?"  
"I'm afraid, I guess. What if I make a terrible mistake and people suffer because of it?"  
"I don't know what to tell you. Life isn't foolproof, Harry. Something always could go wrong, you know. You just have to go along with it. Feel the Force, like Professor Jade says."  
"I try Ron, but I'm still worried."  
"Harry," Ron said as he scooted closer to his friend, looking him in the eyes from a distance of less than a foot, "you have the truest heart I've ever known. When the time comes, you'll make the right choice." Ron meant that completely but Harry didn't seem too convinced. He studied his hands.  
"She thinks I could be the most powerful Jedi ever, Ron," Harry said after a moment or two of silence.  
"Harry, no matter what you become, no matter how powerful you are, I'll be there at your side. I promise."  
"Thanks Ron," Harry said and allowed himself a small smile. It felt as it a twelve ton weight had been lifted from him. He sat up and quickly hugged Ron, surprising the redheaded boy.  
"Not a problem, mate," Ron said as he patted Harry's back a bit awkwardly, "we'll all be with you through thick and thin. Now, let's go get some dinner. What do you say?" Harry let Ron go and they got up. As they reached the Common Room below, Hermione gave Ron a 'well?' look. He gave her a quick thumbs up.  
  
The first snow of the season had began to fall during the meal and it was falling hard. By the time the Gryffindors were finished eating there was an inch of accumulation on the grounds already. "Things are changing," Messina said to herself as she watched the snowflakes fall past her window, "changing quickly." She had been meditating earlier in the evening and saw complete flux in the Force. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen really soon. "We just need a little more time," Messina said as she pulled her robes closer, hoping that whatever was going to happen would wait until after the Headmaster closed school a week early for the winter break. 


End file.
